I love Christmas time.

It fills my heart.

I don’t know how to write about the love I have for this season though, because it asks so much of us, and all not necessarily ‘good or easy!’

Perhaps you know what I mean…

The getting through holiday meals when someone is mad at someone else. Or the times when someone won’t come for holiday dinner, because someone else is coming.

Or, even fearing saying “I love Christmas,” because I would never, ever want to offend you. I would never, ever want you to think that Christmas is an exclusionary thing for me, ’cause it’s not.

In many ways, this is the magic of the season for me.

That in spite of all the highs and lows of life, my family and I ritualistically, like faithful clockwork, come together to share a meal, to celebrate the day, to laugh, and love, catch up with each other and honor our differences.

That no matter what the fleeting trivialities or momentary real life concerns in our personal lives or the world, it all gives way to our love for each other and all people in our world.

For me, Christmas is not simply a time when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, though that was a big deal in my home.

Christmas is the time for “Peace on earth, good will to all” in a real rubber-on-the-road kind of way.

Like living my childhood Christian lessons, especially “seeing the eyes of Christ in everyone I meet.”

Rather than exclusionary, that my way is right and your’s is wrong, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, my lessons of Christmas were to appreciate difference, rather than judge another. To choose forgiveness, rather than hold a grudge. To find understanding in my heart, rather than disagreement.

This is what Christmas means to me.

Beyond searching for the perfect gift, beyond the frustrations of untangling strands of lights, getting to holiday parties after a long day at work… and even the “I don’t believe’s,” Christmas really is a time when everything and anything becomes possible…

If you believe it is possible.

Norman Vincent Peale says it best for me, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

What does Christmas mean to you?

Someone recently said to me, “Carol, you’re a self-actualizing machine,” with admiration for my commitment to my health goals.

But I heard a powerlessness in her comment, like she couldn’t consistently eat healthy or commit to her goals like I do, even though she might want to.

I said to her, “Bottom line, my effectiveness in life directly lines up with my commitment to me and the actions I take everyday, or not. I, like you, falter in my healthy commitments, IF I don’t stick with my daily personal care practices.”

Have you ever prepared your green juice or smoothie for the day, but you ate the croissant instead?

Or have you ever packed your gym bag ready-to-go for your morning class, but found yourself pressing the snooze button so many times that it was too late to go?

Or have you ever sat looking at the green apple you packed for your snack, as you licked the sugar off your finger tips from the donut you bought instead.

I’ve done it all and more. I know how it goes. Even still.

If I do not take care of me first.

So I began to study winners, like Olympic athletes, famous sports-figures and successful entrepreneurs.

I wanted to learn how to apply the very strategies they apply to achieving results, to my goal to restoring my health.

And one thing they all seem to share in common is a consistent morning routine, with journaling a cornerstone.

Journaling.

I resisted journaling for years. I couldn’t wrap my head around it’s benefits.

I couldn’t slow myself down long enough to do it.

But once I began to develop momentum in writing every day, I discovered why so many endorse it.

Over time, I’ve learned several ways to journal. Each way offers awesome, but different benefit. Each way serves different goals.

Here are 3 ways to journal that I know can help in your get healthy game, and in life, the one simple tool to get help you get the health results you most want. 

Morning Pages.

Julia Cameron, author of the book The Artist’s Way, recommends Morning Pages. This is hands-down my first and favorite journaling recommendation.

Morning Pages is the writing practice that feels like what I call prayer or psychotherapy on a page, because from the instruction to never stop writing until 3 pages of free-writing are filled, the most unexpected stuff comes up.

For example, some mornings my writing starts off with a Dear God letter where I pour my heart out about whatever I am feeling in that moment. Then my writing might turn to an ex-boyfriend, a current problem I’m experiencing in life, an idea I have for my business or just “talking” to my deceased Dad.

And that’s how the creative genius from journaling 3 free-writing pages happens. According to Cameron, releasing pent up thoughts, feelings and emotions makes way for the gold buried underneath the gunk.

But more than creative genius, Morning pages brings me back to me, to what’s important to me, to what I most want to accomplish. By journaling out all of the many thoughts that fill my mind that could impede me from staying focused on what really matters, I come home to me.

AKA creating myself as my client said, “a self-actualizing machine.”

Three Positive Things.

Journaling three positive things every night before bed is a perfect antidote to the burdens of the day. You will notice a marked improvement in your mood and overall attitude about life, even if you feel under pressure, by focusing on the good things that happened during the day.

Rather than a simple Polly-Anna, feel-good exercise, writing down three positive things that happened during your day has the power to transmute chronic negativity, because you’re focusing on the good.

Beyond that, you’ll begin to look for the good throughout your day, because you know you’ll want to record it later. It really heightens you mindful present to the goodness in every moment, yet another cut at the feel-good rewards of this journaling practice!

Ten Ideas a Day.

This is my new journaling practice recommended by best-selling author, podcaster and entrepreneur James Altucher. Altucher says it’s important to exercise our idea muscle everyday, so that we can come up with ideas when we need them. If we don’t flex the idea muscle, it will atrophy.

This journaling practice is hard work, at first. If like me, you’ll feel stuck and challenged, unimaginative and stagnant, at first.

Altucher recommends going to a local cafe, or reading an inspirational book for ten to twenty minutes to jar your idea bank. Then start writing down every idea that you can think of.

• Some ideas to spin off of:
• 10 things you can do to get healthy
• 10 things you can do to get fit and strong
• 10 adventures you want to plan
• 10 things you would invent
• 10 books you can write
• 10 business ideas for Google / Amazon / Twitter / you10 people you can send ideas to
• 10 podcast ideas, or 10 videos ideas

So, tell me…

Which journaling practice are you ready to try?

Which one resonates most with you, and why?

Leave a comment below!

Then get my guide to learn how to increase your energy, to add to your journaling practice, so you can feel vibrant and healthy every day. It’s going to change everything. Really.

Change before you have to. -Jack Welch

Change is inevitable, right? Seasons change. People change. Weather changes.

But is change really always inevitable?

If you look closely, you’ll see that what you choose to do, or not, pivots off what you believe to be true, and not.

For example, have you ever wondered why you want to lose weight and look radiant, but also want to indulge in foods that make that impossible?

Or you want to wake up energized and excited for the day, but also want to indulge in unhealthy habits that thwart that from happening?

The thoughts behind your choices may offer you a sense of connection and relationship with those you love, but might also keep you from achieving the health goals you most want.

Thoughts like, ”my family has eaten this way for generations,” or “people just don’t eat that way,” or “I love _____ and am not going to give it up.”

Overlooked, your thoughts become the “cherished” stories that can hold you back. They limit you from experiencing something you might not have ever fully experienced, like what it feels like to wake up energized and radiant, at your ideal weight and with no brain fog.

When I finally got that it was my most treasured stories that held me back when I was sick, like those I mention above, was I able to open up to all the other ways of doing things.

I offer you three “new health rules,” I learned along my healthy path that dramatically changed my life because they asked me to think beyond ways I thought before, 1) calm your mind and let go, 2) optimize gut health and 3) intermittent fasting.  They’re simple recommendations that will appeal to your basic common sense, and their doable!

Calm Your Mind and Let Go:

Far beyond the traditions of ancient spiritual communities, mindfulness and meditation are powerful tools used by people from all walks of life, like CEOs and athletes, corporations and prisons, to calm the mind, embrace the present moment and let go thoughts that cause attachment and worry.

• Mindfulness and meditation makes space for new ways of doing things, and make every healthy choice possible.
• Meditation is an intentional practice of being with the breath for 5 minutes or 5 days (or longer), to train your mind to slow down the zillions of thoughts that rise every minute.
• Mindfulness is a more extensive practice of viewing the world with an increased focus and awareness, to simply be with what is, as it unfolds and let everything be OK.

Optimize Gut Health:

The digestive system is the hub of vibrant health and vital energy, which is why it’s paramount to safeguard the state of your digestive health.

Really getting this is a game changer!

A healthy digestive system affects your weight, your skin, your hormones, your immune system and your emotional and mental wellbeing, which is why it’s critical to extend extra-special care when choosing what you eat.

You want to know the 5 top common toxic trigger foods and how they impact the state of your digestive health: gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

• Gluten abrades the villi on the digestive wall, causing undigested food and bacteria to pass into the body, which sets the stage for a host of chronic health problems, including common allergies.
• Dairy causes excess mucous production, inflammation and imbalance in the digestive tract, which interferes with the absorption and assimilation of nutrients in your food.
• Sugar is highly addictive and causes inflammation and imbalance in your gut microbiota, the good and bad bacteria, which sets the stage for pre-mature aging and disease.
• Caffeine dehydrates, irritates the digestive wall, causes imbalance in the gut microbiota and blocks the absorption of magnesium, which sets off a cascade of problems,
• Alcohol dehydrates the cells and tissues in the body, and is known to cause dysbiosis, an imbalance in the gut microbiota, suppress the immune system, tax the liver and cause emotional imbalance.

Intermittent Fasting:

Intermittent fasting is the hot new rage in the anti-aging circles today. But it is not a diet, it’s a pattern of eating that cycles between fasting and eating.

Intermittent fasting provides the body an increased opportunity to cleanse, heal and rejuvenate by restricting calorie intake for a set period of time.

While many use intermittent fasting today for anti-aging and weight loss benefits, the rewards far outweigh weight-loss and glowing skin. Intermittent fasting:

• Reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in the body
• Increases cellular repair
• Increases detoxification and rejuvenation processes
• Stronger resistance to stress
• Good for the brain and overall health
• Increases longevity
• Reduced brain fog and increased mental wellbeing and clarity
• Fasting is like a reset button. At the cellular level, it puts your body into repair mode and offers long and short term benefits that make it a worthy practice.
• Ready to fast? Start by omitting food for 12 hours and work your way up to 24 hours one to two times per week.

As Jack Welch says, “change before you have to… ”

YOUR TURN…

After you practice these 3 rules, I want to hear from you! Tell me…

What benefits do you notice from meditating and being more mindful, more present? How do you feel from omitting any one or all of the common toxic trigger foods from your diet? Which one made the most difference for you?

What benefits did you experience from fasting and how did that help you in your life?

Share your experiences in the comments below. I can’t wait to hear what you tried and how it helped!

Want more energy now? Grab my new guide that offers the 5 habits top-achievers use to increase their energy by 30%!

Do you suffer with digestion problems? Do you experience discomfort and/or chronic symptoms on a daily basis? If yes, then you want to join me and Gurds Hundal, founder of “Get Inspired With Gurds Podcast,” for this power-packed and fun interview from all the way “across the pond” in the UK!

Gurds and I had a fun time talking everything digestion, because she get’s my mission, she too suffered with digestive problems, as did I early on.

As I discussed, and as she brilliantly weaved in and out in conversation with me about this important topic, it doesn’t matter if it’s Irritable Bowel Syndrome, bloating, chronic constipation or some other digestive problem, most of us don’t know how to deal with these symptoms we experience.

Most of us don’t realize that we are not simply what we eat, but we are what we digest, assimilate, absorb and eliminate.

If you or someone you love is experiencing any type of digestion problem, this episode of “Get Inspired with Gurds” is a must listen.

And as Gurds said, even if you don’t suffer from digestive problems yourself – “Carol’s perspective on healing and intuition is important to hear. Especially, how sugar is the cause of many digestion issues.”

Do you suffer with digestive problems? Have you gone to visit a few different doctors but are still not feeling great? Have a listen in to see if you here something that resonates with you. Then post your questions in the comments section below, or send them off to me via email . I’d love to help!

Over these past few months, did you ever want to say something about all that is going on in our country, but held back?

Held back because you didn’t want to offend or hurt anyone. You didn’t want to engage the hostility. The anger.

So you remained silent.

I held back.

I said very little, to nothing at all. I pushed down my thoughts, ideas and feelings.

But the problem with saying nothing was, it looked like I didn’t care about all that was and continues to go on in our communities and country.

And while I believe their is great strength in silence, I also know silence can hurt.

So after much time to reflect, I break my silence to say,

I believe, with all my heart, in the goodness that lives insides each and everyone of us.

I believe that in spite of all the ways you might express your views differently from me, we wish each other only all the very best.

I believe that even though it doesn’t seem that way, you would be there for me, and I would be there for you no matter how ugly, bad or contentious ‘it’ may seem.

Like Viktor Frankl described in “Man’s Search for Meaning,” when those closest to death and in most need of sustenance in the concentration camps would give their one daily piece of bread to another who looked stronger and more likely to live.

That beyond race, class, sexual persuasion, vitriolic exchange and even man’s inhumanity to man, our very human essence rises up for each other.

Do you agree their is great strength in silence? Do you agree that there is great strength in breaking silence? Do you agree, that beyond all the personal and political preferences, we really would be there for each other? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below, especially if they are different than mine.

“It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” — Brother David Steindl-Rast

Has life asked you to look for the good in every experience—to bless it all, especially the moments that challenge you most? I’ve found that when I focus on being grateful, everything shifts. Everything feels lighter, clearer, better… even easier.

Gratefulness asks us to raise our bar. It asks us to be bigger than a moment of upset, anger, or jealousy. It’s gratitude in motion—a living, mindfulness sort of practice that invites us to see things differently.

Not surprisingly, research confirms what many of us sense intuitively: being grateful increases happiness, fulfillment, and our overall sense of well-being.

Who doesn’t want more of that?

To help you cultivate exactly that, here are 20 simple ways to bring gratefulness into your everyday life—not just during the holiday season, but far beyond it.

1. Begin your day with gratitude for 3 things.
2. Give thanks before every meal.
3. Shift from thoughts of lack to thoughts of abundance.
4. Transform the ordinary into extraordinary with thankfulness.
5. Take nothing for granted.
6. Remember the farmer when you eat your meals.
7. See the sacred in the simple and familiar.
8. Keep a gratitude journal.
9. Bless the people who have hurt you.
10. Thank someone who doesn’t expect it.
11. Extend “thank you” generously.
12. Notice one small beauty you’d normally overlook.
13. Send a gratitude letter to someone who matters.
14. Pause to appreciate it all.
15. Express silent thanks for strangers who make your day easier.
16. Appreciate challenges that asked you to grow.
17. Reframe one complaint as a hidden gift.
18. Look for the good in everything and everyone.
19. Find the one reason that can shift you from complaint to gratitude.
20. Close your day with gratitude for 3 things.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

I recently met Tom at a networking event. He told me he had Crohn’s Disease, but quickly said not to worry, “I am as healthy as an ox! I take two tiny little pills everyday, eat whatever I want and haven’t had a problem for 5 years.”

I got it. Well, kind of. Though I took an array of pharmaceuticals back in the days when chronic symptoms, low energy and a sick body defined my life, I did not feel, “as healthy as an ox.” Rather, I looked and felt sick, tired and old, though I was a young woman.

So I set out to find answers for why I looked and felt so poorly, while so many others I knew dealt with health problems and took medications just like me, but seemed A-Okay like Tom.

It was mind-boggling and frustrating.

What I discovered felt revolutionary!

I discovered that even if the pharmaceuticals we take provide relief, the chronic symptoms and disease we live with does not stopped progressing, inflammatory foods still cause inflammation and wreak havoc in our body… and the “two little pills,” have us all thinking we are healthy and can eat whatever we like, while our body continues to decline.

The medications stop outward symptoms.

No more pain.

No more inconvenience.

No more concern.

No more reason left to do what it takes to create the changes necessary to heal the body and create vibrant health.

And herein lies the crux of the problem…

Change only happens if it’s a must, NOT a should.

Here’s what I mean, my client Nicole felt poorly, like I did early on, even though she took prescription medications. She suffered from Diabetes and previously with Hodgkins Lymphoma. With two little children at home, healing was a must for her, it was not simply I should. Her leverage for change was her children.

So in spite of her doctors recommendation not to take on a take on a healthy eating program, she chose to do it anyway, of course on the promise that she check her insulin levels everyday, and stay in close contact with me and her doctor.

Within 3 weeks of eating a clean, whole, unprocessed foods diet, Nicole reduced her insulin by 75%.

But Nicole was still on medication, and prescription medications not only mask the pain, inconvenience and concern typically needed to change to healthy lifestyle choices, they cause nutritional deficiencies in the body too. For example,

The top subscribed medication, Synthroid (Levothyroxine), recommended for hypothyroidism, interferes with calcium, with deficiencies leading to osteoporosis, muscle spasms, memory loss, PMS, obesity and increased risk for diabetes.

Crestor, a statin drug prescribed to lower cholesterol and fats (triglycerides) in the blood, also depletes coenzyme Q10, an essential antioxidant needed for energy production, and heart, nervous system, muscle and brain support.

This is a serious problem.

To boot, mainstream medical doctors receive only 20 hours of nutrition education. They are at a loss on what do beyond prescribing medication, since their training has been largely shaped by pharmaceutical companies with very little education on nutrition..

Add the impact of the fast-paced, high-stress modern lifestyle, Fast Food Nation and the ginormous success from marketing addictive foods as ‘healthy foods’ choices, it’s no wonder chronic disease and the need for pharmaceutical medications are on the rise.

But here’s what you can do to get out of the looping of taking pharmaceutical drugs,

1. Most important, learn to better understand that cravings and symptoms are your body’s way of saying it is imbalanced, that prescription medication is only masking the problem, and that you can heal your body with healthy lifestyle choices.
2. Incorporate what I recommend to all my 1:1 clients when we first start working together, the Wholly Trinity: include a green juice, a green smoothie and a meal-sized green salad everyday. This recommendation provides you with a triple-whammy of the most nutrient dense foods pound for pound, leafy greens.
3. If you feel overwhelmed initially, be patient with yourself and the process. Simply lean into it. With every effort you extend, getting healthy will get easier.

If you know you're ready to get healthy, click here to schedule a free call with me. I can guide you, as I did Nicole and my other clients, to healing your body and feeling energized and vibrant again. If you know your ready to dive right in, grab my new 1:1 Mini Program, More Energy Now. We can get started as soon as tomorrow!

(Disclaimer: If you have any specific questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.)

Have you ever had a project due, or a deadline to meet, and you couldn’t get it done on time, in spite of trying? Have you ever wanted to quit something you said you would do, but quitting is not your style?

I had the title of my speech. I had my main talking points. But tried as I might, I couldn’t wrap my head around the speech I was supposed to give in just over an hour, though I worked on it all day.

It was 4:20 pm and I was slated to deliver a speech at my Toastmasters meeting at 5:45.

Panic and negative self-talk started.

I decided to take a hot shower, in the hopes that it would ease my frustration and clear my head.

I sighed and thought, what could I possibly say to justify canceling at this late time?

As the warm water eased my frustration, creativity took over.

I jumped out mid-shower and bulleted down the essence of my speech. As I did, I laughed when I looked at my main talking points.

My speech title? The Power of Choice and Why It Matters.

My main talking points?

• Drop the story,
• Know myself, and
• Flex the muscle (get in action).

I had a story to tell with each point, like how single parenthood taught me that anything is possible if I just dropped the story that “it’s” impossible.

That meditation and journaling (prayer on paper as I like to call it), showed me how easy it is to make a choice when I know myself, and that happens when I slow down with these sorts of practices.

And the alpha point that entrepreneurship taught me, if other life experiences had not already, to get in action, stay in action and don’t let limiting stories stop me.

As I laughed and got ready for my Toastmasters meeting, as I put on a little makeup and studied my bulleted outline, I thought, “now this moment is my perfect wrap up to my speech, how I am living my talking points live, in the moment, right now!”

Drop the story, Carol, that you don’t know what to talk about. You live these points. You know who you are, and you know what you are talking about. Drop the story. Own your stuff and give the speech.

I won best speaker for the night. 

As I drove home I thought about the power of choice… and the certificate and laughed again. Surely the paper certificate was not the score of the night. The score was what it took for me to get there to deliver the speech.

The power of choice that we each possess, that we each exercise, not chance, shapes the whole course of our life.

Your turn. Tell me why the power of choice matters to you in the comments below.

Is there a story that you know stops you from achieving a goal you aspire to, like getting healthy?

Do you have daily practices that help you slow down in ways that you know your choices reflect what you want, not what others want for you?

Did you download Five to Thrive yet? The guide to make you 30% more energized in 7 days? If not, get yours here! It's flying off the digital shelves!

 

Getting healthy. You’ve heard it all. You’ve tried it all. Diets. Exercise plans. Pills. Powders and potions.

You know what to do, but you don’t.

Well, you dabble.

You know, you eat healthy once in a while. Maybe you go to the gym a little bit more frequently than you eat healthy. Either way, you never seem to be able to stick with creating healthy consistently. Life always seems to get in the way.

Deadlines. Fatigue. Family commitments. Late night business meetings. Red wine… and Twinkies.

You know dabbling is no longer enough.

You know it.

Excess weight, exhaustion and foggy thinking are impacting your home life and your ability to keep up at work and you’re starting to get a little freaked out. Shoot, you even wonder if chronic symptoms and low energy are affecting your creativity and ability to focus.

Have you ever asked yourself why you don’t stick with your get healthy plan?

Maybe you think your diet and fitness goals are unrealistic. Or maybe you think it’s because you don’t have supportive people in your life, or… you really don’t know what to do so you flounder.

Author Wayne Dyer said, “change your thoughts, change your life.”

But, that could be a huge undertaking since we all have anywhere between 50,000 — 70,000 thoughts per day!

And that seems a little unwieldy for a reductionist theory person like me.

Don’t you agree that it makes much more sense to reduce 1000s of anything down to potent and usable golden nuggets?

For the get healthy game, I’ve done the reduction work for you, and I’m repeatedly led back to the age-old question over and over again, Who am I?

Who are you?

Think about it.

If you can answer this one question, all other answers to all other questions either, 1) become a moot point, or 2) come easily to you.

I know, this can feel like a lofty question, but after pondering on it for years, the same answer, the lowest-common-denominator response that always rises is, 

You are life itself.

You carry within you the force of the Universe, the force of God, Spirit, Mother Nature, the Divine. What you call this force, it’s your thoughts about it and how you live it that makes all the difference.

I mean, if you believed that you literally carried the same life-force as the Sun that holds each planet in its orbit and makes life on Earth possible, or the Moon that animates and moves the oceans with it’s gravitational force, how could getting healthy be hard?

Why would you the invincible, the unconquerable, the omnipotent partake in anything that does not bring forth your highest self and grandest goals?

But you say, I don’t know how to access this life force amidst my crazy busy days? When I am trying to meet deadlines and run errands and attend late night dinner meetings how could that even be possible?

I’ve got a super, easy-peasy, sure-to-deliver exercise:

First, place your hand on your heart then close your eyes. Breathe in and breathe out. This is not necessarily a mediation, but an exercise of presence to your breath flowing in and flowing out. After several inhalations and exhalations, get present to the fact that you are not breathing. You are actually not breathing, but being breathed. By this force. You don’t choose breathing. It’s chosen you.

In it’s most fundamental sense, your most vibrant health, peak energy and productivity, your most innovative creativity and clearest thinking, your ideal weight is an exercise of presence.

I know, it’s like whoah, right?

You are being breathed.

By the source of life.

YOUR TURN

Now that you know this breathing exercise to pull you back to your highest self, to get on, and stay on your get-healthy, be-your-best-self track, I want to hear from you.

Tell me…

What do you think could be possible, with this level of presence on your side?

What healthy goals do you think you can now accomplish, that you weren't able to access before?

Share your insights and post any questions you have about this in the comments below!